Lovely presenter, lovely car…

Sadly the music (particularly the first piece) is not so lovely. It’s a bland George Winston-like jazz piano. When ever I hear jazz like this, I instantly feel sorry for Keith Jarrett. How could something as bad as Windham Hill Records come out of something as brilliant as his The Köln Concert, one of the few post-modern jazz recordings that matches the peaks of the modern moment (1947 to 1968). And we must never forget how the Italian director Nanni Moretti used “Part I” of the The Köln Concert in Caro diario—it’s the best thing about the movie. (European directors have always appreciated jazz more than American directors.) So, minus the music, everything else in this video will pleasure you. One other thing to think about: We are the robots.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

7 replies on “Lovely Robots”

  3. Jarrett’s solo piano work is indeed breathtaking, but I’d say that George Winston gets unfairly tarred with the brush for all the generic new age piano noodling that came forth in the 80’s. Winston’s no Jarrett for sure, but he’s also no John Tesh.

  5. Your tax dollars at work. Unfortunately the car costs 70 grand (less for the “base model” which no one ever buys in this market sector). Not exactly a new milestone for the masses. We’re still waiting for the $15,000 or less electric or 60 MPG gas or diesel car. Like other countries get.

    Spot on about the jazz, though. Jazz pretty much died the day impulse! abandoned the orange spines.

  6. Charles,
    You’ve made my day. You have excellent taste in music. I dig Keith Jarrett and have Koln Concert (ECM) on vinyl. I have seen him live both solo and in Standards with Jack De Johnette and Gary Peacock on percussion and bass respectively. Jarrett is a gifted keyboardist (he plays harpsichord on classical recordings) and a poet. I believe he was a very young member of Miles Davis’ Great Quartet (?). A musician and renaissance man Jarrett remains one of my favorites.

  7. Wow! Look at those robots! I’ll bet they were conceived by those “big brains” that evolved far, far away from the African continent. We’d bring them to Zimbabwe, but Charles and Mugabe would just kick us out of the country.

Comments are closed.